Why Can't You Be Mine?
by BoundlessDelirium
Summary: Sasuke has returned, Naruto has a legacy to fill. Old enemies come back. Will their friendship be strong enough to over come the problems? SASUNARU, sasuxnaru. Full summary inside.


Hey there, this is my..well..basically first SasuNaru fanfic, eventough it's actually the..third? I think.  
I'll explain more at the bottom..

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.. or anyone else. Kishimoto-sensei has them all. (He's unfair, he could share you know x''D)  
Pairings:SasuNaru, hints of SaiNaru..and well... more but you'll see them in time ^^

Summary: Sasuke is back. Everything has been quiet for six months, until someone tries to mess things up.  
Old enemies find their way back and the future of two men are on scale. Will friendship overcome their past in order to survive and will Naruto fill  
his father's legacy?

Rated teen for now.

**-------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

_Prologue_

Six months earlier.

"Are you sure it's okay to let him go?" A grey-haired figure said while watching trough the window as two figures disappeared into the woods.  
"Yes, he can not abandon me, and if he does, I have my ways to get him back..with a little torture..." Another figure walked out from the shadows walking beside the gray-haired man.  
"kukuku..Don't worry.,it's all under my control.."Said the man while watching to the direction the other two figures had gone a moment ago.  
"But what about if they figure out how to.."  
"That's not possible, it's possible only for himself. And I can reassure you he won't give up on his dreams."  
'I sure do hope so..' thought the grey-haired man and lifted his glasses.  
"Go take care of the wounded ones, I need them healthy for tomorrow."  
" I understand" The grey-haired man said and left the room quietly.  
Meanwhile the other man turned back towards the window and smiled maniaclly"Everything will go perfectly.."

Chapter 1

It was an early morning,sun was just rising and the happy shades of orange and yellow were forsing the deep blue to move out of the way.  
The moon was still dawling at the horizon to greet the sun and then to just fade away when the sky turned into the shade of light blue.  
As the first sun rays rose over the tree tops the birds began threir sonate welcoming the new day and happily greeting each other and the few early risers who had already moved in the town streets.  
And among them was a silver-haired jounin making his way to the ends of the town,where a few rundown appartment houses were still standing,altough the area was almost completely abandoned.  
People had slowly started moving away from there,one by one,until the area had only one permanent inhabitant.  
The biggest reason to this mass move was the condition of the houses. Sometimes people stayed there if they were short on money, but moved then back to the better area. The one staying in there had problems getting money and Kakashi was on his way to see this person.  
He stopped outside one house and climbed up the stairs to the fourth and the highest floor.  
He stood infront of the door that was closed, actually, it was the only apartment that even had the door in place. in other apartments the doors were missing completely or then they were hunging only halfly attached to the frames.  
Knocking on the the door sharply, he waited, no answer. He listened carefully for a moment and heard voices from inside so he knocked again, and again,and again...

Meanwhile, the owner of the apartment was sleeping happily, dreaming of ramen, at least 'till his lovely dream was interrupted by a thumbing took him a moment to realize what was the cause of the noise.  
Slowly the young man got up, cursing under his breath and stumbling his way over to the door.  
"Ohayo Naruto-kun." was the happy greeting from the man who had woken him up. By the looks of the younger man infront of him, he had been sleeping until now. His whole appearance was tired, with his hair messier than usually and his sky-blue eyes blurry and the whites of the eyes a bit reddish.  
"-hayo Kakashi-sensei" Naruto said and moved a bit to the side,letting the jounin inside "What's up?"  
He asked while they walked to the kitchen where Naruto put the water boiling.  
"what? Can't I just come to see my ex-student?" Kakashi said with a mocking voice and sat beside the table.  
"at 6 in the morning?A bit too early for my mind, especially for you." Naruto said and turned to look at Kakashi  
"So spill it out"  
"Tsunade is right, you don't respect even me anymore..."Kakashi said playfully  
"The reason I'm here is that you got yourself a mission."  
Kakashi said and turned serious.  
"Tsunade got an urgent request this morning, last night a scroll went missing that could make serious damage for Konoha and other villages, if it falls into wrong has to be returned as quickly as possible."  
"What,,eerrmm...why me? I mean..I haven't been on missions for a while and I.."  
"Well,she asked me first but then again I tought that you might need some money, am I right?"  
Kakashi said, pointing directly to the fact that Naruto was totally broke,he barely had money for food and he had been forced to move out from his earlier apartment due to several reasons.  
"Well...yea..I do need money.." Naruto said and bowed his head a bit, embarrased by the fact that he couldn't even get another job to get money."Thanks..." Naruto mumbled more for the floor than to Kakashi  
"For all, It must have been difficult to get Obaa-chan's promise."

"No thanking,Naruto. It really wasn't that much hard,since the scroll kind of has something to do with you too." Kakashi explained  
"Eh?Me?" Naruto looked puzzled, why would a stolen scroll have something to do with him, unless...  
"Do you mean the Forbidden Scroll!" He thought back to the time he had taken the scroll because of Mizuki's scheming.  
"No, not that one. This is one of the one your father left as a legacy to you, one of the Seven Winds." Kakashi said pretty carefully, he knew Naruto was very  
careful of the scrolls, and he rarely even spoke of them, or asked any information on had left them behind as his heritage for Naruto, who would be receive them once he had proven to be capable of handling hung his head, hand seeking it's way to his neck, slowly rubbing it. Kakashi knew that the young man was thinking of something.  
"Kakashi..." Naruto said and looked at him with steal-blue eyes, the shade that always seemed to graze his eyes when he was serious of something.  
" I need you to tell me everything you know of those scrolls, right now."  
"Alright." Kakashi said and walked in to the living room after Naruto.

After a half-an-hour, Kakashi had told Naruto every possible thing about the scrolls and their legacy, during the whole time Naruto had been silent,not opening his mouth for once, just sitting and staring straight ahead.  
Kakashi thought for sure that Naruto had not understood anything after all, when Naruto adrubtly stood up.  
"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei, for telling." He stared out the window.  
"I must get going right away." Naruto said and grabbed his weapon pouch from the coffee table.  
"Anyways.." he said, regaining Naruto's attention. "We suspect that the thief isn't much of threat, but the reason why he knew of that scroll makes everything a bit unsure "  
Naruto nodded in understanding  
"It's been said that if the jutsu isn't fully mastered it's extremely dangerous, and even more if one else knows about this,except for Tsunade, the client, me and you. And it's good if the information doesn't we don't want any shinobis get hints of it"  
Naruto nodded again " I understand"  
"Good" Kakashi said and smiled, or atleast his only visible eye curved into the shape of an upside 'u'.  
"Get dressed and then head out to the gates,your partner will be waiting for you in there." Kakashi said and started making his way to the door.  
"yeah,i'll do that..Wait a sec! What partner?!" Naruto shouted and ran to the door.  
"Oh ,I just organized som help for you." Kakashi said and pulled out his orange book.  
"I tought it would be for te best since you have to go outside the city limits plus the area to search is rather large"Kakashi said while eyeing his book.  
"Well,good luck,I will have to go now. Don't keep your partner waiting." Kakashi said and headed down the stairs.  
"See ya later!" Naruto said and went back inside. 'Shit! I forgot to ask who I am going with.'  
Naruto walked back to his bedroom and glanced at the clock;6,15am. "_Well..guess I'll have to get going_."  
Naruto said to himself while pulling on his clothes and heading into the kitchen to drink his tea.

-----------------------------------

Later at the gates

-----------------------------------

Naruto was running along the rooftops,leaping easily from roof to roof, he could have runned down by the street but he wasn't in the mood to play happy and indifferent. It seemed that the villagers had become more cold towards him ever since he passed the chuunin a year ago.

And Naruto couldn't really blame them. He had grown, not only had he gotten stronger but he didn't look as goofy as before, his hair had grown longer, his face had gotten a bit more angular and he also had developed some muscles, even tough his frame was still rather slim. He was happy that no one from the ex-rookie nine knew about kyuubi, he was scared to even think about what they might have done if they knew that he was the one who had the demon, that had attacted the village and nearly killed everyone,sealed inside him.

But he still didn't blame having Kyuubi inside of him,atleast he had someone to talk to. Yes, Kyuubi was actually rather nice when you got to know him(Naruto preferred calling Kyuubi him,even if the fox had exclaimed that he actually had no gender), and even if the fox hadn't completely given up on his plan to revenge to the village he had promised to stay sealed until Naruto got his revenge. Altough Naruto kept saying he would never hurt the villagers,but Kyuubi thought the other way,he was sure that deep inside Naruto was dying to get revenge.

Naruto jumped over to a few more roofs and then the he could already see the gates.  
He quickened his pace a bit, since he wanted to be there berore his partner, who ever it would be then.  
Naruto leaped down from the roof and landed softly to the ground.  
He greeted the gate guards and showed them the paper Kakashi had given to him, it explained why he had to leave outside and some other official mumble-jumble.  
Naruto looked around but he saw no other shinobis so he went to sit on the bench near by the gate.  
He leaned his back to the wall and let out a heavy sigh.  
This mission had come to him like a gift from heaven, since his bank account was on the cold and he hadn't had a proper meal for days.  
Just then his stomach desided to demonstray this and let out a small growl. Naruto clutched his hand to the fabric of his jacket over his stomach and looked down.  
'Damn..I should have looked atleast something to eat before I left..." And on top of that, he was tired, hell so tired. He hadn't had even proper sleep lately, mostly beacuse of the worry of his unpaid bills going round in his thoughts.  
He breathed in deeply the fresh morning air, closed his eyes and listened to the symphony of birds.  
He felt himself relaxed as he drifted into a space where he neither slept or was awake.

Naruto was just about to drift into sleep when he heard footseps closing and when he opened his eyes he saw Shikamaru walking towards him.  
"Shikamaru!" Naruto greeted and wawed his hand happily to the ponytailed jounin.  
"Naruto." Shikamaru nodded and sat beside him.  
"Why are you up so early today?" Naruto asked curiously, after all these years he still couldn't believe that Shikamaru could move before noon.  
"I'm on a mission." Shikamaru said and sighed "I 'm ordered to guide the academy's honour guest...how troublesome.." He sighed again.  
Digging to his side pocket, he grabbed his cigarettes and lit one up,taking a long drag of smoke, welcoming the feeling in his lungs before slowly exhaling it.  
Naruto grinned. "Come on, it can't be that hard..."  
"You have no idea just how hard it can actually be, especially when the guest is..." That's all Shikamaru said when they heard talking from the direction of the gate.  
They both turned to look and saw a dark clothed figure with blond hair and a long object on the back."...Temari.." Shikamaru ended his sentence and got up.  
"I guess it's better that I go before... never mind.." Shikamaru ended when he saw from the corner of his eye that Temari was walking towards them.

"Good morning,Temari" Shikamaru said politely when she reached them.  
"Morning,Shikamaru" Temari said and nodded.  
"Morning Temari!" Naruto said and grinned. "What are you..auch!" Naruto's sentence was interrupted when Temari hit him hard on the head.  
"What was that for?" Naruto whined and rubbed his head.  
"For that you didn't visit us the last time you were near Suna." Temari said and looked rather pissed that worked on Naruto, because he still didn't know the difference when the woman was serious and when she was only joking.  
"Ah,t-t-that well..I was..um busy and so I.." Naruto shuttered "but otherwise I would have..."  
"I know, I know" Temari interrupted. "Geez you don't have to take everything so seriously." She smiled  
"But I'm glad to see you are.... fine"  
Naruto laughed a bit. "So...how are Kankuro and Gaara?" Naruto asked curiously, he hadn't seem then for a long time.  
"They're good. Except that Kankuro gets weirder messes stuff around Gaara's office"  
Naruto laughed at this. He knew that Kankuro had gotten a bit weirder ever since he had found someone.. altough..no one knew who the person was.  
*krhm* "Temari,Tsunade asked me to take you to her office as soon as possible,so..." Shikamaru said.  
Temari nodded to Shikamaru" Guess it can't be helped Naruto, I'll see you later?" Temari said and looked at the blond.  
"Yeah" Naruto Shikamaru got up and both he and Temari waved to Naruto and he waved them watched after them and smiled.

Slowly, he relaxed and leaned his head against the hard and cold wall and watched how the sun rays played across the streets and the treetops.  
He felt anxciousness overcoming him, he would have wanted to go already but he decided to wait for his partner since he didn't want to listen to Tsunades lecture about following the rules.  
So he closed his eyes and tried to relax. Which only resulted in him getting annoyed trying to make himself relax.

Sighing deep,he slowly opened eyes and took out his green frog wallet.  
He opened it ans started counting the money in it. "300" He closed the wallet and slipped it back to his pocket."300.. that's just enough to survive for the next pay day." He leaned his hands to his knees, resting his head upon them and staring at the ground."Except that there is that electric bill..and the food bill..and I still own Hinata ten...' He drifted into his thoughts thinking off his unpaid bills and undone jobs.

He was deep in his toughts until he heard a threatening voice speak next to him.  
He looked up and saw a black-haired, dark-eyed young man stand infront of him.  
"Dope" Sasuke said when he got the blonds attetion.  
"Don't call me that,bastard!" Naruto said and jumped to his feet.  
Sasuke rolled his eyes "I called you atleast for three times." He said as he shoved his hands to his pockets.

"O..a..oh...You did?" Naruto shuttered and laughed nervousnesly "I guess I was lost in my toughts"  
"So,what did you want?"  
"Oh..I was just having a sunday stroll!" Sasuke snorted "Get your sorry ass up and let's go get this over with."  
"Who did you call lazy!" Naruto shouted and waved his arms in the air. "Wait-get over with what?!"  
Naruto was dumbfounded "Are..you..I mean..are you the one who's going to go search the scroll with me?!"  
Sasuke sighed mentally _'Oh how great, I just knew this day is going to badly, Kakashi and his perverted talks..'  
_"*Yes and so are you so could we go already? I don't have time to use the whole day to do this." Sasuke said and started making his way towards the gate.  
Naruto,however, stood in his place, still shocked and annoyed that he had to go with Him! of all the shinobis, Kakashi just had to put them together._'We haven't even been talking much since..that..'  
_It took a moment for him to realize that Sasuke was already stepping trough the gate and he quickly ran after the raven-haired man.  
_'But maybe it's time for us to settle things up.._'  
He ran trough the gate and saw that Sasuke was already at the edge of the forest.  
"Teme! Wait!!" He yelled and ran towards the forest.

"You are planning on something" Said a voice next to Kakashi, who what so ever,wasn't surprised since he had felt the others precence the whole time.  
"Maybe.." Kakashi said and smiled beneath his mask.  
"You shouldn't..I mean...they have both gone trough a lot and maybe it would be better if they... you know..searched the way back to the other by themselfs."Iruka said as he looked after the two boys, standing on the roof next to Kakashi.  
"Might be.. but don't you worry about it" Kakashi said and tied his arms around Iruka "I am not going to force them.. I just gave them a small push forward."He said and smirked.  
"And better leave it to that, because they are my students.."  
"Ex-students" Kakashi noted "As well as mine and I only wanted to , well, help them out a bit, but don't worry, I think that things will go on on their own from now on" He continued and gently kissed Iruka "Believe me"

-----------------------changeinscene-----------

Naruto stared at Sasuke's back, who was a few bramches ahead of him. They had spotted some marks on the ground and we're now heading to the same his gaze to take a look at the ground he noticed that the steps of the thief had wavered, there were a few, deeper marks, from around them the grass had moved and the soil had created a circle around the step.  
As naruto stared at it, a picture from a six months ago popped into his mind.

*_flashback*_

"Let me pass, or I'll have to kill you!" Naruto yelled at a red haired woman in front of him.  
"As if either of those will happen, I know you're here for Sasuke, and I am not intenting to let you get to him." The woman said cockily and took a step forward,  
"Your tricks wont work on me anymore, I'm gonna get trough from here, that's for sure" Naruto said as he tightened his grip on his kunai.  
"Neiher will your jutsu's work in here, I have seen your kage bunshin enough many times to know where the real you is."  
"Then I'll just have to do something else.." Naruto said and launched a serie of shuriken and kunai towards his opponent from different directions  
"HAH" Too easy, if you wanna win you'll have to..huh?"  
A flash of blue came twirling towards her, she grinned  
"Rasengan,huh? No use" She said and moved to the side, just as she was about to get hit, as the chakra ball hit the walll she got a good look at Naruto,who looked dumstruck, she was quick to act, pulling a kunai she launched forward and thrusted it to Naruto's side, just as he was trying to flee back.  
"I think you lose." Grinning madly she wrenched the kunai back with a small sideway movement, widening the wound.  
She was shocked to say, when there was suddenly a puff off smoke was before her eyes and the blood vanished from the blade.  
As the situation sunk in, she was already too late, for she felt a sharp jolt go trough her side, her mouth filled with the taste of blood.  
"I think." Naruto spoke low-toned "that your abilities weren't as good as you thought." He pushed the kunai forward, wanting of it to reach the womans heart,he wanted to kill her there and then.  
Both he and the woman jolted however, when a sudden sound that resembled birds echoed around them.  
They we're underground so Naruto knew what that meant and pulling his kunai out, he jumped a bit farther and turned to face the other way,  
where he was met with a sight of blue,electric like chakra bouncing up and down the hallway walls and floor and in the middle of it stood Sasuke.  
'Heh', guess I'm not the one to die today after all, Naruto." The woman said and then turned to Sasuke, holding her shoulder.  
"Sasuke-kun, I knew youd come to help. Let's take care of this little piece of shit." The woman turned back towards Naruto, whose attention was completely on Sasuke. He coulnd't afford to play around now, since he had no idea how strong the other man had gotten.  
The chirping sound increased and suddenly the blue blur came towards them.  
Naruto was certain that this was his end, that he was unable to fulfill his mission.  
The blur grew bigger and even louder, he couldn't see Sasuke and as he glanced he saw the woman smirking maniacly, closing his eyes, he sent an apology to his comrades in his thoughts.  
One moment and suddenly the chirping lessened, wondering why he hadn't felt the pain from the hit, he opened his eyes and saw that instead of him,the chidori was pierced trough the woman, whose face was twisted in pain and shock.  
"You we're always too bossy and sure of yourself, Karin" Sasuke growled lowly, twisting his hand so that he made the woman scream in agony.  
"Sas..suke..why?" Karin uttered and coughed up some blood.  
"I thought,we..we we're supposed to...kill others and..leave together. That's.." She kept a pause, taking in a shivering breath. "what you promised."  
"You should never trust a man like me, promises are empty for me, thus I have never made such promise, The only thing I promised you was freedom, if you help me succeed my mission. And it's almost accomplished now, so I have no use for you anymore."  
"But, you need help, to, kill.."  
"I need no help!" Sasuke growled and pulled his hand back, watching as the woman collapsed to the floor, huffing and panting, blood flowing  
freely and colouring the ground in crimson shade.  
"Orochimaru and Kabuto are dead, theres no-one whom you could have returned to anyway."  
"You.." Karin lifted her head weakly "How did you..."  
"Easy, that snake never had me for real, and now that I know I have surpassed him by far, I am ready to face my brother, but that is a mission of my own."  
"I thought we had something more than just a mission beetween us, I thought I was special to you, I was suppose to follow you till the end."

Karin laid her head to the ground  
"I can't believe this ended...like...Sasuke.. I.. didn't you realise anything.."  
"I did, but you never had a chance, for my life has only one meaning, and I don't need anyone to my side."  
"So.. there truly is no sence of humanity in you anymore.." Karin smiled sadly. "And I have nothing left..How pitiful of me.."  
And with that, she closed her eyes and as soon as Sasuke was sure she was truly dead, he turned around, blood-lust still present in his eyes.

During the whole time, Naruto had just stood and watched, of course he had known that Sasuke would be different, but seeing him now,  
seeing the way he acted and the way he treated his comrade and after seeing the development the man had done,  
he knew that this might be his end too, the news of Orochimaru's death, just comfirmed his thoughts more,  
the lingering fear that had been present in his mind ever since he stepped out of the Konoha gate, was now growing into a hude shadow,  
clouding his mind and making his body numb with fear and watched as Karin whom he had fought with, collapsed and stopped breathing all-together.  
He jumped slightly, all of his muscles tensing as Sasuke turned towards him, Sharingan still activated.  
_'This'_ He thought _'Is not going to be easy_.' He thought, his senses over-active, mind racing fastly from the moment now to the past,  
fear settling into his stomach like a heavy rock.

With incredible speed, Sasuke was suddenly coming towards barely got to move to the side, falling to the ground face first, in the place he had been moments ago, was a small crater,singnaling that eventough he had not seen it, Sasuke had used the Chidori while attacking.  
He rose to his knees and carefully eyed his former team-mate who stood a few meters away from him.  
Slowly,Sasuke began striding towards him, hand still buzzing with the remains of chidori.  
Naruto didn't bother to move, he knew he was no match for the raven. Sadly he thought of his comrades whom we're outside, fighting with Orochimaru's minions.  
Sasuke was now standing right infront of him.  
Determined, Naruto turned his gaze up, staring straight into Sasuke's red eyes.

*_End flashback_*

"I'm gonna go this way, you go check over there" A commanding voice said below him and as he looked down he saw Sasuke standing there looking slightly irritated, though when the teme wasn't?  
Naruto mustered up a nod, his brain still flashing hundreds of memories trough his mind.  
Sasuke began walking away from him and Naruto dropped down, shaking his head a little  
"Stay focused!" He ordered to himself "Now's not the time to be thinking of these things, you'll have to leave them for later!"

Taking a deep breath he turned and began jogging to the the opposite way of Sasuke, arriving to a small opening amongst the woods.  
On the left to him, there was something blackened on the ground. Checking around for any movement or chakra signatures, before walking closer  
to the place, hand ready on his hip pouch.  
He was now standing next to the remains of a presumed camp-fire, on the ground he saw an imprint, big enough for a human to make.  
Bending down, he brought his hand over the coals, feeling a slight heat rising from them.  
"It has been put out just a while ago.." His awareness rose immediatly, eventough Kakashi had said that they didn't assume the man to be extremely dangerous,judging from the skills of his in-break and escape. Naruto decided not to take any risks, afterall, this was his first mission for six months.  
Looking around, he remembered that Kakashi had mentioned that they assumed the man had been wounded, he searched for signs of blood, but saw none,as he was rising up something woke his interest among the coals, something grey-white was among them.  
He used a kunai to pick it up, and indeed, it was a bloodied bandage, which confirmed the suspection of injury.  
Rising to his feet, he pondered whether to go get Sasuke or investigate around for a bit more. Deciding that in case the man was in condition to move around, he would only get farther away, he turned and walked a few steps, when something shiny a few meters away caught his attention.  
Walking over, he saw some kind of a kunai on the ground, it wasn't like the ones he was used to see, this had a very unique looking handle and an odd, almost round blade.  
He reached to pick it up, bringing it closer to his face and that was when he noticed the string atached to it's handle, he heard the whizzing in air  
and look up, kunai and shuriken were flying towards him, he moved to get out of their way, but two managed to grace his upper arm.  
Rolling farther, he rose to his knees and held the wounds, he could feel that kyuubi had already began tending them, but they we're enough deep that blood soaked his jacket all the way down to his elbow.  
Alerted he looked for any signs of the one who had set this up, he assumed that the man must have known that someone was after him, why else set up a trap.  
"More importantly." Naruto rose to his feet,hissing slightly as pain shot trough his wounds "I guess he's still around, but why can't I feel anyones presence."  
"Just what on earth.." Naruto mumbled to himself.

"I'm guite impressed you had the time to move away." A voice said to his right and as he turned to look, a man stood out from the shadows of the looked rather normal in his grey shirt and brown pants, but his face gave him away.  
The look in his eyes was maddened, his pupils just tiny dots amongst huge pools of glowering green, scars slithered accross his forehead and jaw, one beginning from his side temple and streching all the way down to the nape of his neck.  
His head was half bald, the right side had long hair that was pulled into a ponytail and on the left he had a complex looking tattoo, covering most of the bald area.  
Gripping his kunai tighter, Naruto dropped into a fighting stance, judging from the mans looks and his trap, he was not just and ordinary thief.  
Naruto charged forward, thinking it would be better to attack than be attacked. After all, he knew nothing of this man.  
Throwing in his kunai, moving to the right side himself, he watched what the man's reaction would be.  
He watched as the man moved to the left.  
_'Heh, got him'_ Naruto grinned.  
His grin was wiped away however, when the man reached out his hand and grabbed the other kunai that Naruto had thrown in the shadow of the other, in a slighlty different course than the first one. He knew there was no-way the man could of had seen him do that, he had gotten even Kakashi with that trick once.  
_'So, he's either super lucky, talented thief or shinobi above a joonin'_ Naruto thought while gritting his teeth together.

"Huh, you thought such an easy attack would work on me?" The man chuckled and pulled out a set of scrolls, two for each hand.  
He let one scroll roll open and out came a long spear, with a three edged blade, and some sort of thin ropes that had metallic rings.  
"Weapon master, huh?" Naruto mused to the man 'I'm in trouble, I never go good against Tenten, even if we sparr just lightly.'  
Sure Naruto knew how to use weapons and he's strategies had improvet a lot. But against someone who held multiple weapons,  
most of his attacks didn't work, unless he used Kage bunshin, but there was no reason to use it yet, he knew Sasuke could get trough to the man easily,his special attacks no longer needed contact, where as Naruto's long-range attacks we're limited to a very few weapon and few of his original one's, which all included the usage of clones.  
"I don't think my weaponary skills are going to affect this battle much, judging by the looks of you." The thief smirked and whirled his sphere 'round in the air, before securing it in a strong grip and pointing the tip towards Naruto.  
Naruto sighed, he had been insulted by Jiraiya enough many times not to care anymore about such words but he knew that his patience was still way too short for these kind of battles where he actually needed to think a bit more than just slamming some version of rasengan to his opponent, this man definetly was more of Sasuke's opponent, sadly, the dark-haired shinobi was no-where to be seen.  
"Well, Blondie, are we gonna finish this fairly or should I just kill you there." The man questioned him, lowering himself to another fighting pose.  
As the man made a few movements alone,Naruto watched astonished, his footwork was perfect and even while moving around, the man's defence seemed flawless.  
Naruto too, crouched down a bit, before leaping up and dashing towards the man once again, he thought it'd be easier to attack the man head-on, since he couldn't control weapons that flew in air, which obvisouly wouldn't be a problem for the man.  
_'I just hope he isn't much of a taijutsu user_..' Naruto prayed in his mind as he distracted the man with a kunai, charging forward with the intention of throwing a round-house kick at the man, however, he had forgotten the spear's lenght advantage, which was now wielded towards him, it took all skill Naruto had to avoid the hit in mid-air,but still the result ended with Naruto getting a shallow cut to his left leg.  
Suddenly, he felt a huge pressure and he was flying backwards.  
"That's all you got, boy?"' The man said as he stood there posing proudly in a position Naruto assumed could only mean the man indeed knew some taijutsu.  
Naruto's feet hit the ground and he slid backwards a bit, until he regained his footing.  
_'This is gonna be harder than I thought_.' Naruto grimaced as he thought of the situation 'I_ can't use bunshin, he can easily detect them, taijutsu is out too'_ Naruto squinted his eyes, looking at the man's hands  
_'He has two scrolls unopened... Wait, Two? There should be three..'_ Naruto thought back when the man had taken out them and he was ready to swear on his life there were four.  
He heard the slightest whizzle and was barely able to dodge three kunai's aimed for his head.

"Good job on dodging those" The man smirked once again, it seemed as though his confidence rose the whole time.  
"You see, the reason you heard they're voice at the last moment, is that my blade desing is unique, cutting trough the air with the slightest noise possible, in correct angle, it doesn't make a sound louder than a leaf flying in the wind." He lifted his spear upwards, the metallic clinking of rings echoed in the empty clearing.  
"Like I'd care of that, I'll defeat you before you have time to use more of those blades!" Naruto yelled back, pulling three shuriken and a kunai from his pouch.  
"Oh, overconfident, are we?"  
Naruto knew his words were only acting, he had no idea what to do, but he hoped to buy some time.  
"Your hot-headedness makes this only easier for me, idiots like you are easily defeated." The man continued and slid two of the scrolls back in place.  
"I doubt I'll be needing these with you, shame though, it would of had been nice to see them slam into you." The man laughed in low tone. Just as Naruto was about to charge in once again, a shadow flew over him and now, beetween him and the thief, stood Sasuke, katana unshead.  
"Naruto, stay back." Sasuke said in commanding voice  
"I don't want anyone to be in my way during a battle." Sasuke said as he glanced Naruto from the corner of his eye. He hoped Naruto wouldn't do anything unnecessary, he had watched the fight from the beginning and already knew where the thiefs blind-spot was.  
"New blood for the fight, huh?" The man questioned excitedly  
"I think it would be better if you two worked together, since it's only gonna lead into the same result of you getting defeated and you could save me the bother by attacking at the same time." The man smiled kindly, voice mockingly sweet.  
"Hn" Was all Sasuke answered. He had no need to go on with the man's ranting ,the only purpose for it seemed to be feeding his ego.  
He charged forward, fast, the man was however, right on his que and swung the spear towards him. That was exactly what Sasuke had excpected and when the spear was almost close enough to hit him, Sasuke pulled a shorter sword while using the katana to hold back the spear. Twisting his shorter sword in beetween of the small ropes, he pushed it towards the ground, preventing the man from wielding it again. Before the man had time to recover, he swung his katana forward, aiming for the man's throat.  
It looked like he would be able to get a hit, when suddenly, there was a puff of smoke, and the next second Sasuke was being held from the throat by the man.  
"Futile attempts, you'll need a hundred years more of practise!" The man laughed and lifted Sasuke mid-air from the ground.  
A knee collided with Sasuke's chest and he was sent flying backwards, towards the trees.  
The last thing Sasuke registered was the exploding feeling in his back and the sight of Naruto running in-beetween him and the thief.  
Then his vision went black, his mind trying to focus on regaining control over the body, shutting down all unnecessary senses for the moment.  
Naruto had known the man was something more, but when he had seen Sasuke getting a hit, he knew that this was more of an tactical fight where he couldn't rely on cheap tricks.

"Sasuke. you okay in there?" He asked, not moving his eyes from the man, who was still similing smugly.  
"Hn" Was all he got for an answer. _'Good, atleast he's awake'  
_"Let's settle this now, I don't know who you are, and what you want, but I want you to return the scroll you took!" Naruto growled at the man.  
"Why should I? There's no-one in your village who would benefit from them. I heard that the prodigy in line to receive them ran away six months ago.A good-for-nothing,loser who relyed on the power of his demon." The man snickered  
"Dont speak of things you don't know anything about!" Naruto yelled and dropped his kunai down to the ground. The man knew which nerves to get and Naruto was too tired to try and keep calm. He was worried for Sasuke, who had remained unmoving.  
"I am that prodigy, and sure as hell I have never ran away in face of danger"  
"Oh really? You are the prodigy for these scrolls" The man said, twirling a blue decorated scroll around in his fingers. "Interesting.."  
Meanwhile, Sasuke was trying to rise to his feet, he knew Naruto couldn't win this fight alone.  
Pushing his every muscle to their limit, he managed to rise to his knees, the pain jolted down his spine in shock-waves,his lungs burned when he pulled in a small amout of air. He almost crashed back down, but managed barely to hold himself up by his arms, eventough they were shaking uncontrollably along with the rest of his body.  
"Sasuke!" Naruto yelped as he saw the other man moving."Don't push those injuries, I will handle this man, so you stay out of my way for once."  
Naruto smirked and turned back to the man, he knew Sasuke's pride was hurt and he would try to interfere, which meant that Naruto would have to end this quickly.  
"How noble words, though I think they're going to be nothing but smoke vanishging in air."  
"We'll see about that." Naruto said while pulling out a yellow scroll from his vest. "I have decided to end this now. Unless you will give up on the scroll and admit into captivity." Naruto offered once more.  
"Not even in my nightmares."  
Naruto chuckled. "You don't regocnize this scroll, do you?* He glanced at the thief from beneath his eyebrows.  
"Seems like a middle-ranked summoning scroll to me, I doubt it's power will be enough to defeat me." The man hummed satisfied.  
"Congragtulations, it is, indeed, a summoning scroll." Naruto said and saw the smirk on the man's face widen  
"Hoever, even if it is middle-ranked, compared to the other's, I think it will be enough to blow you away.' It was Narutos turn to smirk now, as he rolled the scroll to his palm, holding it in his fist.  
"Do you mean, that that is.." The man's eyes widened in disbelief  
"Yes, this is the first scroll on Seven Winds" Naruto answered and opened the scroll. "And you should feel honoured to even see it."  
"I'm sorry, but it seems like this fight is over." Naruto said as he slammed a seal down to the scroll.  
Chakra leaked out from his hand and the scroll emitted a power that made his normally blue chakra tinted slightly more to a yellowish shade.  
Naruto charged forward, a ball of chakra forming into his hand.  
"Rasengan; Seven Winds version."  
All Naruto could see was the look of shock on the thiefs eyes, before his rasengan collided with the mans chest, ramming into it.  
The man flew backwards and landed heavily to the ground.  
Ingnoring the feeling of the energy-shock, Naruto ran over, and after making sure the thief was indeed dead, he took the scroll and secured it in his vest.  
"_Sorry pops, for using it_." Naruto apologized in his mind.  
He turned around and ran back to Sasuke, who now laid face down on the ground.

Sasuke, whose strenght had failed him, had listened to the fight. He had a little idea as to what scrolls the two were referring to, but Kakashi had only given him a very little information in the morning.  
Hearing Naruto's footseps closing in, he mustered up the little strenght left in his body and rose to his body, ignoring all the protests his body made.  
Lifting his head up, he met the blond's worried look.  
"Hey, Sasuke, are you sure you should move yet, let your body have a moment to recover, there's no need to worsen your injuries" Naruto said when he stopped infront of the slightly wavering man. He knew better than to notify Sasuke about that, or they might end up in another fight, or that is atleast how things had been before.  
"Seriously, I thought you were gonna cut trough the poor tree." Naruto tried to joke a little, but he was too drained and confused to maintain complete focus. Sasuke was about to retort back with a comment on Naruto's own flying skills that were demonstrated pretty much that day too, when he noticed something moving behind Naruto, and to his horror, he saw the man aiming a kunai at Naruto.  
Before Sasuke had time to say anything, the kunai already whizzed trough the air towards Naruto's back. Panicked, he acted before even thinking of what to do.  
Naruto felt a sudden grip on his shoulders and then his world spun around in colorful speedlines, as he was turned around and he felt his back collide to the ground.  
He closed his eyes at the sharp pain that shot trough his head when his head bumbed to the ground.  
"Ow! Sasuke, what on earth is the meaning of this!" He barked as he touched the back of his head, where he could already feel a bumb forming itself.  
"Sasuke" He opened his eyes and looked up,staring straight into Sasuke's dark eyes.  
Something warm dropped to his hand and as he lifted it up, he saw drops of blood, he looked to his side and there sticking up from the ground, was a kunai, right next to his face. As he looked back up, he saw the huge gash on Sasuke's upper arm.  
"Sa...Sasuke?" Naruto asked carefully as the dark-haired shinobis eyes began turning upwards and he fell next to Naruto.  
"Sasuke! Wake up!" He shaked his comrade first gently, then adding a bit more strenght.  
He heard a choked laugh farther away. He rose to a sitting position and glared at the man with the coldest eyes he could muster up.

"That brat is gonna die, the blade was covered in poison that attacks the inner organs and in few hours, his whole organism-system is going to be nothing but dust."  
Naruto looked at the man in disbelief. How could he still be moving around? He was sure the rasengan had hit the man full-force.  
Anger rose quickly inside him, he could not let that man win this,he could not let Sasuke die because of such trash. Jumping to his feet,  
he began calmly walking over to the man, who laid on the ground, blood oozing from his wounds.  
Naruto pulled out one kunai.  
"Brats like you and him should learn your place before trying to act big."  
Naruto ignored the man's speech, he was too furious even to comperehend the words he heard. He continued striding towards the man, gripping his kunai tighter.  
"You.." Naruto said as he stopped infront of the man. "You are the worst kind of trash, you may call us brats for all you want."  
He kicked the man over and lift his kunai.  
"It's over now." He growled as he slammed the kunai to the mans chest, watching as blood spilled out of his mouth and he let out a choking applied even more pressure, he was worried for Sasuke and that only increased his anger.  
Once he saw the man's body fell completely limp, he pulled the kunai out. Kicking to the man on the side once more, he turned around and rushed over to tested the raven-haired man's neck for pulse and found that it seemed to be slowing down.  
Quickly pulling out a bottle of anditode Sakura had given him, he poured it into the wound, wishing it would lessen the poison's spreading.  
He furrowed his eyebrows in worry, they were a good two hours away from the village, his leg was slightly injured and the usage of the Seven Winds-scroll had taken up alot of his stamina.  
"Sasuke.." He shaked gently the older man  
"Hey, hang in there. I need you to open your eyes, ok?" Naruto said gently. Sakura had teached him some first-aid skills but he knew nothing of poisons. The coal-black eyes blinked open once, twice, before shotting open and their gaze spun around wildly until finally locking into Narutos owns.  
"Sasuke? Can you hear me?"  
Sasuke blinked his eyes once more, trying to get rid of the blurriness from his vision.  
Looking up once more, he was met with Naruto's worried gaze, he noticed how close the other man was and he felt his attention being sucked into those wide pools of sky-blue.  
Sasuke lifted his hand to touch Naruto's cheek.  
"You're ok.." He whispered out.  
"You should worry of yourself, do you feel pain anywhere?" Naruto asked worriedly and tried to search for any signs of pain on the ravens face.  
Sasuke just stared at him, his eyes for once showing many emotions flashing trough his eyes, though Naruto was unable to grasp them, they were fleeting away before he had time to register them.  
"So beautiful..." Sasuke mumbled and continued to stare intensly at the blond. Thus making Naruto feel himself very anxious, he really wasn't following the situation there.  
"I'm not sure I heard you right, are you hurting anywhere?" Naruto repeated, trying to get some contact with the raven, who seemed to be in his own world.  
His intentions, however, were blown out of his mind when he felt a sharp pull on his neck and something warm pressed against his lips.  
Before he could react in anyway, Sasuke had already pulled back, still holding the blonde's neck and staring deep into his eyes.  
"Sasuke..you... what.." Naruto tried to grasp his thoughts, but his mind wasn't capable of forming any reasonable words for him to use.  
Suddenly, Sasukes eyes closed and he began falling back down, Naruto caught him quickly, though.  
Puzzled by the raven's actions, he just stared at the man in his arms, not knowing what to think.  
A sudden gasp from the raven's mouth made him regain the grasp of the situation they were in. He quickly tested the pulse of the raven, his heartbeat seemed the same as before, but his breathing had suddenly come uneven.  
Carefully lifting the man up into a piggy-back position, he rose to his feet. Starting towards the village as fast as he could.  
_'Hang in there, Sasuke. I'm not sure what just happened, but I sure as hell want an explanation._'

About two hours later, the sun beginning to set, Naruto got the Konoha gates into his vision. He saw that they were closed and one guard stood outside them,patrolling around.  
When he was a ten meters away he shouted to open the door, he needed to get past them and into the hospital straight away.  
Luckily for him, it was one of his sparring partners on duty, so he let him trough without questioning.  
Shouting a quick thanks and a promise to explain later he ran towards the hospital.'  
The streets were almost empty, people already in their homes for the night, probably enjoying a nice meal along with their families.  
Turning to left, he could already see the hospital ahead. His footsteps echoed in the empty street and Sasuke's uneven breath rang in his ears, reminding him of his limited time.  
He just hoped he wasn't too late.  
"Emergency!" Naruto yelled as he entered trough the door. The nurse from behind the counter was by his side in a second.  
"What has happened?" She asked while pulling out a pair of stretchers for Naruto to lay Sasuke on.  
"It's someform of poison, I dont know anything else. I gave him some antidote, but you have to hurry, the man said it's going to attack his inner organs!" Naruto explained in panic, afraid he had taken too long on his way back.  
Another nurse who had overheard them appeared next to them, grabbing a hold from the other side of the stretcher.  
"Trauma one is free, I already altered the doctors." The second nurse said with the cool, calming manner the nurse's always seemed to maintain.  
The womens began pushing the stretchers forward, Naruto following behind them in a fast-paced jog.  
He was, however, stopped from entering the treatment room by the other nurse.  
"I'm sorry, I can not allow you in here, it's extremely important that we have a peace for work." She said and kindly guided Naruto to the side.  
"Do you know the antidote you gave him,"  
"No, but the bottle is here, I got it from Sakura-chan." Naruto said and extended the bottle for the nurse to take.  
She took it and nodded in thank you,before disappearing into the room Sasuke had been taken to.  
Naruto collapsed into a bench opposite to the treatment room and laid his head against his hands.  
Questions raced trough his mind, he was so afraid that the poison had already gotten the raven. If it turned out like that, he would blame himself for the rest of his life. He had gotten Sasuke back into the village and he sure as hell didn't wanna lose his friend again.  
Footsteps neared him from the left, but he didn't care to see who it was. The person however,stopped next to him and a hand was laid gently on his shoulder.  
"Naruto? Is something the matter?"Naruto looked up and saw Sai standing next to him, gazing at him with worry, one of the emotions the man's face had adapted to over the years.  
"I'm quite fine, me and Sasuke just back from a mission, Sasuke however.." Naruto's voice died down, he took in a deep breath before continuing  
"He got poisoned, he was taken in just a moment ago." Naruto said quietly, the more he wanted to know if the raven was okay,the more anxioux he grew."  
"Have they said anything to you about it yet?" Sai asked while kneeling down to Naruto's eye-level.  
"Nothing... Sai.. I don't know if I made it in time, I seriously tried, I ran as fast as I could but what if..." Tears filled his eyes as he turned his gaze back to Sai.  
"Ah, don't worry, I'm sure the Uchiha will overcome it. Don't worry, I know you did all you could." 'Sai said gently and pulled him into a hug, feeling the other shiver with contained tears "I know you did." He whispered gently.  
After a moment, the shivers substitued and he pulled slightly back, locking his gaze with the blonds.  
"Calm down for now, there's nothing you can do." Sai smiled as well as he could, hoping to brighten his friends mood a bit. He knew how much the blond had stressed when they had gone seeking for Sasuke, and after that incident at Orochimaru's hideout... Everything had been a bit different ever since Sasuke and Naruto had returned to the village.  
Door opened to the surgery room, and out stepped one of the nurses who smiled kindly at Naruto.  
"His breathing is stable now, and we have managed to remove most of the poison, but the damage is not found out yet." The woman explained softly, seeing the reddened eyes of the blond, she knew that he should get out of the hospital for a moment. The sitting outside of the surgery room was a mental stress to anyone, not that many noticed it.  
"Maybe you should go for a walk and come back later." The woman continued and glanced at Sai, hoping that he'd be on her que.  
"Yes, I agree." Sai said and straightened up.  
"You could go inform Tsunade of your return and then come back here, I'm heading to that direction too, so we could walk there together if you want?"  
"Sure..." Naruto said quietly and glanced at the nurse, smiling weakly and began walking towards the exit.  
The nurse smiled thankfully at Sai, for understanding her intentions. Sai just nodded and walked after the blond.  
Once outside, Naruto took in a deep breath of air, his muscles were short on oxygen after the long run and he felt his shoulders slowly tensing up with the stress.  
Quietly the two men walked side by side towards the Hokage tower. Naruto knew he had to go tell Tsunade the mission report, eventhough he would of had much more rather sat at the hospital waiting for news on the raven.  
They entered the tower and were walking down the corridor to Tsunade's office, when Shikamaru walked towards them.  
He took a long look at Naruto, taking in the sight of red eyes and all together disshiveled look. Glancing at Sai, he received a warning look as if to not ask anything.  
"Hello, Shikamaru." Naruto smiled and looked up at the joonin.  
"What's up?"  
"Nothing, troublesome women." Shikamaru muttered under his breath. " Anyways, it's good I ran into you, Sai, Tsunade needs you to that thing we spoke of earlier this week." Turning his attention fully to the black-haired man, thinking that it was the best to let Naruto be.  
"If you're not busy, I'd gladly have you accompany me right away." Shikamaru continued and both he and Sai made a sideway glance to Naruto.  
"Oh, I'm fine already, Sai. Just go if you're needed, I'll just go explain Tsunade what happened." Naruto smiled and waved his hand dismissingly, hoping that he hadn't caused bother for Sai.  
"If you're sure..." Sai said cautiously, he knew Naruto wouldn't admit even if he wasn't alright, but knew better than to try and pry the blond to say it. The last time it had ended up with Naruto in the hospital for a week, trying to prove his point.  
"Yeah, really. I'll see you later Sai,Shikamaru" He gave them both a curt nod and a wave before turning around and continuing his track to Tsunade's office.

He knocked twice and waited for Tsunade to yell 'come in' before opening the door and stepping in.  
Tsunade lifted her head from the papers and her eyes widened in surprise when she saw Naruto.  
"What on earth happened?" Tsunade asked worried when she got up from chair and walked over to the young man, who now stood infront of her desk.  
"The thied, was a bit more than what we expected." Naruto said, gridding his teeth sadly.  
"The scroll was revived however and the thief killed... " Naruto continued and glenched his fist.  
"However, Sasuke is currently in surgery room, he was attacked with some poison."  
Tsunade's eyes widened a bit in disbelief, she wouldn't have expected the Uchiha to be that much messed up, but it was possible that his chakra control had not fully recovered after the removal of his chakra seal. After all, having ones chakra sealed away for hald-a-year must have some affects on the body.  
"Well..I'm sure he's gonna be fine, I haven't been contacted yet, so it's probably not that much of a bad situation." Tsunade tried smiling a bit and then he noticed the blond's bloodied trousers. The dark fabric made a good job consealing the fact of injury.  
"Have you had your wound treated?" Tsunade asked irritated, no matter how many times she told the blond he never listened.  
"Uh..I was going to, but it kind of.. slipped from my mind.. " Naruto said ashamed.  
Tsunade let out a heavy sigh.  
" sit down so I can treat it."  
Naruto obeyed instantly, not wanting to anger the Hokage, he knew that if anything, Tsunade was deadly serious to injuries, espacially Naruto's.  
Tsunade examined the wound, it wasn't too deep. She cleaned it and managed to close it up without using much chakra, a small,almost indectable scar was left on Naruto's arm.  
"There, you're fine. Or did you have any other injury?"  
"Kyuubi already took care of the ones on my arm, so I'm fine now. Thank's Tsunade" Naruto smiled sincerely at the woman and slumped down into the chair while Tsunade returned to her own seat.  
"I'm curious to know how the situation ended up like this, but you're probably eager on getting back to the hospital, am I right?" Tsunade asked while leaning her head to her palm, eyeing the blond.  
"If it's possible, I would gladly go back to the hospital and make the report when Sasuke is up and about." Naruto stared at the floor, hoping that the raven would be there, no he had to be there to explain this with Naruto.  
"Sure.. go rest for now and come back tomorrow, I have a ton of work to finish tonight after all so I think your report can wait until tomorrow night."  
Naruto happily, though his saddened eyes mixed the expression into a very messed up one. Naruto rose to his feet and bowed to Tsunade.  
"Thank you very much, Tsunade-o-ba sama." Naruto said before quickly moving out. As he closed the door he heard the sound of something chattering into pieces against the door.  
Chuckling a bit to himself, he began walking back to the hospital.  
"Kami..please let him be safe.." He thought before breaking into a light run trough the village.

*--------------------------------------------------------------------------------*  
Whoa! finished it finally*aplodes to self*

Yeah i know it's the first chapter and all, but it's a huge thing for me. This was my first fanfic I began planning on, originally, it was a short, possbily two chapter-long fic. Then I abandoned it for a while and when I returned writing it, it turned out a bit different than the first one.  
I had it published it on freewebs for a while.  
But then, the story began living in my head and two fics, evolving around the same theme were melted into this one, so the current (and permanent) version of this fic consist of 3 fics put together and it's the result I have come to after five years.  
I think it might have been somewhere around these time's I began making this fic.. :D  
So as you probably will understand, I'm gonna be extra-thoughtful on this one.  
I have this planned trough to the end of the 9th chapter, and I'll update as soon as possible, but my typing always ends up in doing something completely different.  
But enough of my ranting. Hope you enjoyed it and stay tuned for the next chapter.  
Rewiews would be nice, flames can be put on too, my floor is kinda cold so I'll use them as a heater.

This is un-betaed so if you find mistakes,feel free to point them out.  
The grammar might suck on somepoints, since english isn't my own language.

R&R ^^ See ya again!


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